KEY POINTS:
Searchers for a man who allegedly faked his own suicide are mystified by how he managed to leave an isolated coastal area undetected.
The man, whose name is suppressed, went missing near Port Waikato, south of Auckland, in November 2002.
Police have claimed in court that he set up a second life in Christchurch under a new identity, and was only sprung when he applied for a passport so he could travel to Australia.
His Auckland wife had him declared dead last year and collected $1.2 million on his life insurance policies.
Police initially accused the wife, along with the man, of two fraud charges, but reportedly now believe she was innocent of the scam, and genuinely believed her husband was dead.
Lifeguard Malcolm Beattie, president of Sunset Beach Surf Lifesaving Club at Port Waikato, remembers the day in November 2002 he got the call to search for the man.
It came after his car was found abandoned by a disused quarry on SH25, the main road out of Port Waikato that follows the Waikato river.
"We launched two of our boats and went up and down the river for two hours because everything pointed to the fact he'd parked the car and jumped into the river. I remember his family being quite distressed."
Beattie's astounded the man left the area undetected. The car was 25km from the bridge that led to the only road out.
"How the hell he did it, I don't know. Someone must have given him a ride. Did he hitchhike? Did he have someone there? It's not as if he was friends with many people here."
Beattie said the man was renting a bach in Port Waikato with a woman, who may have been his wife, and two children before his disappearance. He said the family kept mostly to themselves.
"People can disappear in life, there's no law against it, but it appears he's left his family. Was he unhappy? God knows. It's strange. Because we were involved in a search that wasn't a search it's stranger."
According to NZ Post records, a man by the name of the alleged death-faker had a Pukekohe address in August 2002. Pukekohe is about 40km from Port Waikato. The 2005 Electoral Roll lists his occupation as cabinet-maker, and lists him sharing the same address with a couple. But when the Herald on Sunday called the couple yesterday, they denied all knowledge of the man.
Detective Sergeant Dave French, of Pukekohe police, who was in charge of the missing persons case, said he was surprised when Christchurch police rang him about the bizarre twist.
"But it was always a possibility."
In Christchurch District Court on Friday, the man's defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger told Judge Raymond Kean her client had had no contact with his family since the staged suicide, and had not benefited from the insurance payout. The man faces two charges of fraud and one of dishonestly using a document, and has been remanded in custody to appear again on February 14.
